John Key's cyber setback

John Key's website is the target of a 'Google bomb.' Photo / Supplied

National Party leader John Key has suffered a cyber setback in his bid to become Prime Minister, after being labelled "clueless" by internet search engine Google.

A former Young Labour representative has hit Key with a "Google bomb", a tactic that links names with undesirable attributes.

Anyone entering "clueless" in the google.co.nz search box and selecting "pages from New Zealand" comes up with a list headed by Key's website, even though the word doesn't appear on the site.

"Google bombs" have been lobbed at politicians in the past, one linking the word "liar" to Tony Blair.

Auckland computer programmer Rochelle Rees told the Herald on Sunday she emailed friends a year ago, asking them to put links on their websites to Key's site with the word "clueless" as the link text.

"More than anything, it's fun," said Rees, who said she was interested in politics but not affiliated to any party. "But it's serious at the same time... clueless was an accurate word to describe John Key's performance."

However, a number of readers emailed nzherald.co.nz to point out that Rees was elected as Young Labour's Auckland/Northland representative last year.

When questioned over her links to Young Labour today, Rees told confirmed she had previously been part of the organisation but had not yet decided how to vote in this year's election.

"I'm not currently linked with the Labour Party or any other political party," she said.